The multi-fluid flow control device of the present invention is particularly suited for use in fluid handling-beverage dispensing apparatus or machines.
In the art of making and dispensing beverages, such as fruit-flavored ades or punches, it is common practice to make beverages by mixing together predetermined volumes of sugar-ladened beverage concentrates with predetermined volumes of water. The sugar-ladened concentrates are commercially produced and are intended to be mixed with predetermined volumes of water to produce proper and vendable beverages. In most instances, the ratio of water and concentrate is variable, within reasonable limits, to produce "light" to "heavy" beverages.
In practice, it is necessary for the users of concentrates to adjust their beverage handling machines so that properly metered volumes of water are caused to combine with the concentrates that are used. Accordingly, with possible rare exception, beverage making and dispensing machines that operate to mix water and beverage concentrates to establish beverages to be dispensed include manually adjustable water metering valve means to adjust and set the volume of water that is caused to combine with the beverage concentrates flowing through the machines, the volumetric flow of which is suitably and accurately controlled. The manually adjustable metering valve means used throughout the art are selected from a multitude of commercially available valves, etc., that are often quite costly, troublesome to use and of questionable serviceability in the environments they are placed.
In the past, the producers of beverage concentrates packaged and distributed concentrates in glass bottles or jugs and in tin cans. Those containers usually ranged in size between one gallon and five gallons. Due to inherent inconveniences and difficulties encountered in handling and using such packaging means, the producers of beverage concentrates and the manufacturers of beverage handling equipment have continuously sought to improve and make easier and more-convenient-to-use beverage concentrate packages and machines.
In the beverage dispensing art, the overwhelming majority of those who make and dispense beverages established of concentrate and water, utilize beverage dispensing machines that can be effectively and economically supplied with beverage concentrates packaged in small containers that range in size from about 1 to 3 gallons and such that the handling and storing of the containers present no major problems. To this end, the industry now provides counter top beverage dispensing machines that conveniently accommodate concentrate containers ranging from 1 to 3 gallons in size. Those containers are commonly formed of "blown plastic" and are shaped and contoured to most effectively utilize space within and about the beverage dispensing machines with which they are to be related.
In furtherance of the foregoing, many beverage dispensing machines now being produced are equipped with beverage concentrate conducting parts or fittings with upwardly opening cylindrical sockets into which pouring spouts provided on concentrate containers can be engaged to supply concentrates to the machines. The depending dispensing spouts have O-rings about their exteriors, to enter and seal in the sockets provided therefor. Still further, the dispensing spouts are provided with normally closed check valves at their outlet ends to normally prevent concentrate from flowing out through the spouts. The spout-receiving sockets are provided with central posts that engage and unseat the valve members of the check valves, to open the valves, when the spouts are fully engaged in the sockets.
Due to the great tendency for bacteria to grow in and about beverage making and dispensing machines, regular flushing and cleaning of such machines is mandated by strictly enforced Codes and by good practices. In the case of beverage making and dispensing machines of the general class noted above, both Codes and good practices require that those parts and portions of beverage handling equipment through which sugar-ladened concentrates flow be thoroughly flushed and cleaned of sugar-ladened materials at least once a day and/or that they be flushed and cleaned whenever they are put out of service for a period of time that is sufficient to enable bacteria to commence to colonize. For example, when a machine is put out of service overnight (from one work day to another), it must be flushed and cleaned before being put to rest.
In the case of those beverage making and dispensing machines, in which containers of concentrate are directly connected with the machines, the containers must be disconnected and removed from the machines to effect flushing and cleaning them, and the machines must be provided with and include costly and oftentimes complicated flushing and cleaning systems, including flow lines, manifolds and valves that must be operated in prescribed manner to effect removal of the containers; effect flushing and cleaning of the machines; and effect re-engagement of the containers. In addition to being costly to make and maintain, the flushing and cleaning systems for machines are often so complicated and inconvenient to use that those whose responsibility it is to effect flushing and cleaning the machines all too often shirk that responsibility.
As a result of the foregoing, there has been a recognized need and want for improved means to effect flushing and cleaning of beverage making and dispensing machines of the class referred to in the foregoing that enables the machines to be flushed and cleaned without having to provide separate costly and complicated flushing and cleaning systems and that do not require that the concentrate containers be disconnected and removed from the machines to effect flushing and cleaning thereof. Still further, there is an existing and recognized need to provide improved means for adjusting the rate of flow of water into and through such machines that does not require the adoption and use of costly, space-consuming and difficult to install and maintain water metering means.